Recent News
POW Fest throws the spotlight the work of women filmmakers, showcasing films directed or co-directed by women from the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Here’s the lowdown:
What: POW Fest 2010 Festival
When: Thursday, March 18, to Sunday, March 21
Where: The Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, Oregon 97212
Cost: All festival pass $25
One-night pass $10
Individual screening pass $7
Opening-Night Reception: Free (21 & over event)
Click below for a program description and a little more about POW Fest.
UPDATE (March 4, 2010): See Rob’s interview on the Channel Frederator Blog.
Channel Frederator is what happens when one of the guys who came up with Comedy Central creates an internet channel dedicated to edgy new animation. (It also goes by Cartoon Central.)
Frederator’s a regularly updated, no holds barred, indie animation nerd fest and we love it. The “channel” works half like a TV station, four shows with distinct subject ranges, and half like Youtube, with all site’s shows available for streaming and sharing.
This week Frederator Show features Rob Shaw’s “Machine”.
We recommend checking out the whole site. The aptly named — and not worksafe – Cartoon Hangover show is great for giggle…
Nando Costa recently released a series of wood engraved artwork. The original artwork was created digitally and later engraved with a laser on an untreated block of maple.
The title of this piece refers to the zip code of his neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Each of the forthcoming artworks will be inspired by a different location which he’s been to and have influenced him in some shape or form. This particular one depicts in an iconic way the beaches and mountains near his home, while also graphically representing some personal aspirations and goals.
The dimensions of the piece are 11.25 x 11.25 x 0.75 inches. Each of the 10 will be individually signed and numbered and are available for sale on Etsy.
“Walter Ate a Peanut,” a film by Bent Director Robin Willis, is part of the lineup of the Bagdad Theater’s January 19th NW Filmmakers Night.
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the film starts at 7 p.m.
UPDATE (January 7, 2010): “I Exist” made number 3 on Shoot Magazine’s list of Top Spots of the Year.
Shoot Magazine’s editors have chosen “Unbelievable,” a Diet Dr Pepper spot we did with Deutsch LA , as one of 15 finalists for their Spot of the Year honor. Now it’s up to a public vote to decide the winner. Click here to vote.
Read on to watch the spot below.
Rob Shaw’s short is nestled in among the Kayne’s picks in music, fashion, architecture and design.
Have a look: Rob Shaw’s “The Machine” on Kayne’s blog.
The Portland Advertising Federation recognized two of our projects at this year’s Rosey Awards. We also took home a prize in the Advertising & Design Club of Canada’s annual awards.
Looks like the Verizon spot we did with McCann-Erickson tapped into some strong feelings in the social media world. “Misfits,” a :30 spot that sees a smart phone end up on the Island of Misfit Toys because 3G issues, quietly went up on YouTube last week.
347,000 views and 370 comments later, it turns out Rudolph resonates as strongly as ever with audiences, and people REALLY care about their cell phone service. Check out what everyone’s saying on YouTube and Twitter.
Our own Nando Costa’s the headliner at the first meeting of AEPDX, the local Adobe After Effects users group, on November 12 . He’ll be giving attendees a peek behind the scenes of his latest creation, the music video for Modest Mouse’s “Whale Song”.
This six minute epic, a marriage of Bent’s stop-motion/live action expertise and Nando’ motion graphics mastery, has received plenty of attention since it first dropped on Pitchfork.
Don’t miss the chance to hear Nando’s take on how the magic happened. Sign up for the group and RSVP today!
Bent now has a presence on Vimeo. Excitting! Enjoy the comments and embedding features of the site.
Bent’s Nando Costa collaborated with fellow Graphic Designer Jd Hooge to create a campaign for the new Lexus Hybrid vehicle. Nando’s participation was primarily to create print ads and data graphics that can be seen in each of the sections of the website.
Jun Seo Hahm’s Karnival series continues to collect accolades through festival aqcceptance, this time into the ever-intriguing Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.
Bent’s director and creative partner Nando Costa is amongst the 4 artists commissioned by Adobe to create a short film using the new Adobe CS4 suites. Nando represented the newly released Master Collection with an animated piece that in ways works as a symbol for his creative process. The site adobeartists.com also shows an interview with Costa while he was still at Nervo, before joining forces with Bent.
BENT cleans up at The Bessies (Canada’s big advertising awards) with its shorts for the British Columbia Dairy Foundation.
Read the full post
BENT’s live-action director Robin Willis’ film, “Walter Ate a Peanut,” has been included in the online section of 2009’s Cannes Film Festival.
Read the full post
Director at BENT Image Lab, Daniel Garcia, is a man of many talents, ranging from computer animation, graphic design, and as being one of today’s most interesting music video directors.
Mr. Barsamian is a kinetic artist whose work, when seen in person, is so jarring that one can begin to question the laws of physics that we have known as truth since very early in life. He is an animator whose work is not confined to a screen, but exists in the real world, in all three dimension where you can stand right next to it (But don’t touch).
Introducing the immaculately crafted paper sculptures of Ms. Prokopowicz. A collection that defies headaches, limitations, and most papercuts. The orginal cut n’ paste is back and it takes this talented female animator-by-day to brings us here.
Jen doesn’t just make bears, robots, and plants out of paper, she makes the THE BEST bears, robots, and plants out of paper. When she is not helping BENT make video magic, Jen is minaturizing the natural world into natural paper. See for yourself.
The Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament 2009 lands in Portland this Saturday. The Portland Art Museum will host the competitions in 2D, 3D, and Motion Graphics and Bent’s director Nando Costa will be one of the judges for the animation portion. For more information visit Cut & Paste.
Tonight PNCA’s gallery opens a new exhibit to showcase the work of Gary Bialke, who passed away one year ago, and will feature many of his paintings, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures.
The whimsical paintings, drawings and sculptures seen in this show are a sampling of both the personal and commissioned work done in the past ten years. In the realm of commissioned work, Gary worked at several studios including Bent Image Lab, Will Vinton Studios, and others. You can read more about it here.
Kvadrat has now released a new design by the french designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. ‘clouds’ is a textile system, which lies somewhere in between furniture and curtains. The system is modular and evolves as elements are either added or removed.
‘Clouds’ is fully dependant on the user to sculpt its three-dimensional form to reflect their personal expression. each piece in the system is made from kvadrat textiles formed into small triangles. tabs on the outside of each piece allow them to be joined together with special elastic bands. the tiles can be assembled together to create different forms, like a decorative screen or divider and comes in a multitude of colours.
Seen at Designboom.com. Photo Credit: Paul Tahon and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.
On February 28th, Choque Cultural Gallery in association with Jonathan LeVine Gallery, presents SÃO PAULO a group exhibition featuring a number of Brazilian street artists at the SCION Space in Los Angeles. Participating artists include: Stephan Doitschinoff (aka Calma), Carlos Dias, MZK, Ramon Martins, Silvana Mello, Speto, Titi Freak and Zezão.
Gus Van Sant’s Milk has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards and Bent is proud to have contributed to its visual effects.
Bent’s co-founder Chel White was the VFX supervisor on a few of the film’s shots after working on a number of other Van Sant films including My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Paranoid Park.
The fresh geometric work of Portland painter Mark Warren Jacques from Together Gallery is now being shown at Fontanelle Gallery from February 5th until the 28th. Must visit “Big Beautiful Color” to see his intricate lines at play.
Read the full post
The team at Bent Image Lab is very proud to finally bare its “Hidden Formula”, an international spot for Coca-Cola created in partnership with Santo (Argentina).
The spot is featured as the cover art of STASH 52, as well as in an extended article in this month’s Digital Arts magazine.
Directed by BENT co-founders David Daniels and Ray Di Carlo, “Hidden Formula” is being heralded for its ingenious marriage of stop motion animation and state of the art CG. The secret is out. See for yourself both on Bent’s site and here as a Quicktime.
Check out the work of Dutch digital artist Mattijn Franssen. He has created quite a large number of really odd and sometimes dark photo montages, which in a sequence almost tell a bizarre story.
Visit his Flickr page to get a taste of his work and leave your comment.
Brightly decorated trucks with carefully crafted neon and steel isn’t something you see in your average U.S. highway. However, it is something very common in Japan thanks to Decotora, short for decorate trucks. Just another very colorful aspect of Japan’s pop culture.
When I last saw these images sent by a friend I thought I desperately needed an American version driving down I-5 on my daily commute. Perhaps Portland is the one place that can spark that. Can someone please get your tools and get started?
Make sure to read this web article on the subject at PingMag. They feature the work of Photographer Masaru Tatsuki who spent ten years with the truckers of Japan’s highways. Enjoy!
